Jalal Damirian

Jamal left Vance AFB with the wings of the United States Air Force on his chest and returned to Iran to begin service in the Iranian Air Force as an F-4 Phantom pilot. At this time Iran was still under the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who was a friend of the United States. Later the Shah was ousted in a revolution of sectarian leaders and Iran became entangled in a long seven-year war with its neighbor Iraq. Jamal was killed in that war. Following is a brief account of Jamal's life as told by Ahmad Motallebi, Jamal's friend and countryman who trained with the Section I pilots:
"Jalal Damirian had a wife and child, who was about two years old when he died. He was on a bombing mission and was shot down by a SAM II [SA-2]. That was was about 6 months into the war. There is an amazing story about the day of his death. He had a small white dog that he was very fond of. The day he was to die, the dog laid on his legs and tried hard to keep him at home. The dog did not want him to leave. At the exact moment that Jalal was hit with the missile, the dog died too. It’s interesting that we [Jamal and Ahmad] left Iran to come to the States for training on the same day, and we both returned to Iran after training on the same day. He was a wise, kind, and educated man. He was from the city of Tabriz. His first language was actually Turkish, because that was his cultural background. It is interesting to note that he was one of the first pilots to see the UFOs in Iran. He was a navigator on that flight. They also tried to shoot the UFO but found that it was impossible."
Internet stories of Jamal's UFO encounter are abundant. Here are a couple: